


The thing that leads me back to you

by SalaciousMind



Category: One Piece
Genre: Ace/Luffy is only mentioned in passing, Alpha Ace, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Boys In Love, Consensual Sex, IF I'M MISSING TAGS PLEASE TELL ME, Knotting, M/M, Male omegas are hermaphrodites, Mates, Mating Bites, Mating Bond, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Mentions of Lactation, Mentions of Pregnancy, Minor Monkey D. Luffy/Portgas D. Ace, Omega Sabo, Past Underage Sex, Porn with Feelings, Porn with a dash of plot, Reunion Sex, Reunions, Smut, Vaginal Fingering, concerned and confused whitebeard pirates, consensual past underage sex, if male omegas are able to get pregnant, lactation fantasy, lets at least be vaguely realistic about how that works, more background decoration than real plot, omegas have vaginas, they were both underage is what I mean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:41:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26654596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SalaciousMind/pseuds/SalaciousMind
Summary: Sabo didn't expect to ever figure out who his mate had been before he lost his memories. But then he catches a trail his instincts refuse to let him ignore...
Relationships: Portgas D. Ace/Sabo
Comments: 7
Kudos: 213





	The thing that leads me back to you

Sabo was on a mission when he caught a whiff of scent that threw all his thoughts in disorder.

It wasn’t a strong scent. Just a single note among hundreds of others, but it jarred him like one of his boss’ punches.

His phone call with Koala was instantly forgotten. Automatically he hung up and pocketed his baby den den mushi. His clothes felt suddenly ten times more restricting as the heat that had been lightly simmering beneath his skin suddenly reached a boiling point.

It had never been this bad. He had never really _felt_ his heat before. As an already mated omega, his heats should only play up in the presence of-

A haze fell over his mind. He had to find the origin of that scent. That was the only mission that mattered right now.

For a moment, Sabo paused. Losing himself like this was dangerous, he knew. So why was he allowing it? Why was he reacting so strongly to a single scent that – he sniffed – belonged to an alpha?

Beneath his shirt, the mating mark on his neck throbbed, low and heated and eager.

_Could it be…?_

Sabo had no idea what it meant, but if his mark was reacting then…

_His mate…_

Then there was no choice at all. Sabo would follow that faint scent, and see if he could finally get some insight in the past he couldn’t remember.

And if what Koala and Hack suspected was true and it was some scumbag noble or upper town pimp then Sabo would at least _know,_ and act accordingly.

The scent lead him on a winding path through the market place. If it wasn’t for his instincts automatically identifying the scent he would have lost it ages ago in the jumble of spices, greenery, flowers, perfumes and the endless scents of other alphas, betas and omegas.

It wound and wandered and finally entered a seedy-looking bar.

Sabo blinked. It was not what he expected. For some reason, that made his instincts flare even more. From the looks he got from those around him, assumptions were made about his flaring scent, and he could already see some prepare to act on those assumptions.

But he didn’t care about the looks, or the alphas turning to eye him with interest. He didn’t care, because pure instinct had taken possession of his thoughts the moment he opened the door.

Because the thickness of the scent told him his alpha was _here._

**~X~**

Ace was out drinking with the other commanders when his world was upended. A single unassuming scent drifted into his nose along with hundreds of others along with the sound of an opening door, but unlike all others, _this one_ made him snap into hyperawareness so fast his mind was spinning. _This one_ made heat flare up hot and low in his stomach.

It was sudden. It was stunning. It was exactly the kind of feeling he’d only felt a few times before, when Luffy had gotten his heats. Only stronger and far more startling.

Luffy was nowhere near here. Couldn’t be. There was no _way-_

He turned towards the source of the scent.

It was like a punch in the gut. Because the person the scent was coming from was a dazed-looking blond with curly hair, a long fancy coat, and a top hat with goggles on it. There was a pipe on his back.

Beside him, Thatch whistled. “Now there’s someone looking for a good time.”

Before he could catch himself, Ace snarled, low and furious. _“Don’t touch him!”_

A stunned silence fell at their table. At the door, the blond’s eyes landed on him.

“Uh, Ace. I wasn’t going to. Anyone with a nose can tell the guy is mated,” Thatch said, a frown furrowing his brow. “Seriously, you should know that. What’s gotten into you?”

Ace didn’t know. Ace _didn’t know_ , because what had gotten into him was something _impossible._

Someone else wasn’t as honorable as Thatch. A large, muscular alpha swaggered up to the blond with some low purring invitation on his tongue. Ace snarled again, but before he could do more than get up the blond had already pulled back a fist and smashed it into the alpha’s face in a picture perfect straight punch. There was a loud cracking sound and the windows rattled when the alpha hit the ground.

“Hands off,” the blond hissed. Rather uselessly, because the idiot was already out cold.

With a disdainful sniff the blond rubbed the blood off his knuckles with the man’s shirt before straightening again. Then intense blue eyes focused back on Ace.

Ace was frozen as the far too familiar blond approached him. The other’s scent filled his nose and beckoned him.

The blond omega smiled and stepped into Ace’s personal space without hesitation. Gloved hands reached up to clutch bare shoulders.

“Found you,” the omega whispered, before letting himself fall against him. His hat tumbled to the floor.

Ace only just managed to bring his hands up in time to catch him. Startled shouts sounded behind him as his crew’s confusion peaked.

Warm breath ghosted over the mark Sabo had placed on him so long ago, before he felt the blond nuzzle it.

Instead of the revulsion that was normal when someone touched his mating marks, Ace felt a heady rush of arousal and belonging. It was stronger than he’d ever remembered Luffy’s being, because it had been so long.

“S-Sabo?” Ace squeaked, barely daring to believe and ignoring the weirded-out stares he was getting.

“I found you,” Sabo mumbled. “I finally found you, my alpha.” Fever-bright eyes met his and a grin split Sabo’s face. _“Ace. I found you.”_

And then his eyes slid closed before he went entirely limp in Ace’s arms. With a startled curse, Ace clutched him tighter.

“Okay,” Thatch said behind him. “I have _no idea_ what’s going on.”

But like a true friend, he did pick up Sabo’s top hat for him.

Ace did not know what was going on either, but he knew one thing. He wasn’t letting go any time soon. With a lump in his throat, he manhandled his omega – _his_ omega, his mate _, Sabo, Sabo, Sabo,_ who _wasn’t dead –_ onto the bench with him until Sabo was half sitting, half slumped all over him. Not once did Ace have anything less than one arm around Sabo’s waist.

“Um, is that a good idea, Ace?” Haruta questioned, curiosity in his eyes as he watched Ace run gentle fingers through blond hair.

“Yes,” Ace said resolutely. “Because he is mine.”

While his brothers were stunned silent, Ace gently loosened the cravat around Sabo’s neck. Then the top buttons of the shirt, just enough to push all the layers Sabo wore aside and look-

There was a mark on his neck. Exactly where Ace had put it, in the exact shape Ace remembered. With the scars of the not-quite neat rows of his teeth showing clearly. He had stared at his mark endlessly when they were young, traced every ridge and bump of the scar, because he couldn’t believe someone would consent to being mated to him. He loved that mark and everything it stood for, and Sabo had been happy to indulge his fascination.

Ace was incredibly glad that he had chosen to mark Sabo’s right shoulder back then, because this close, even the dim light of the bar couldn’t hide the thick swathes of scars climbing over his left shoulder and brushing the side of his throat. The scar over his left eye was particularly vivid, even though it had healed well.

The scars were clearly burn scars and also old, and with sudden certainty Ace knew exactly where Sabo had gotten them.

Sabo wasn’t dead, but of course no one could survive getting blown up without it leaving marks.

Ace felt tears gather in his eyes and tightened his embrace. Dogra had been wrong. Sabo had gotten blown up, but he hadn’t died. Sabo had _survived._

_Where have you been all this time, Sabo?_

But those questions could wait. Instead Ace pressed his nose against his mark, and breathed in deeply. Sabo’s scent wasn’t quite the same Ace remembered, but it was still familiar, and it settled in his brain soft and firmly, the way it belonged, like pieces of a puzzle smoothly clicking together. His instincts purred contently.

Seas and skies. He hadn’t thought he would ever get to have this again.

Ace gently pressed his teeth over the mark, and was rewarded by a sweet sound from Sabo. The kind of sound Sabo used to make as a child, when he was too far asleep to respond but still somewhat awake enough to react. It was nothing like the violent reaction any alpha could expect from an omega they were not mated to.

 _Sabo. This is really Sabo. I got him_ back.

“Ace, what the hell is going on, yoi?”

His brothers looked well and truly freaked out now. Marco’s eyebrows were up to his hairline and Thatch’s jaw was on the floor. Haruta was doing the impression of a landed fish and the rest of his brothers were no different.

“Ace, that’s a mated omega. You can’t just handle him like that!” Izo hissed frantically.

“I know he is, because I’m the one mated to him,” Ace replied bluntly, rubbing his tears into the collar of Sabo’s jacket. “And I won’t hurt him.”

“WHAT?!?”

“Ah. So he’s the one your other mark belongs to,” Marco said with sudden comprehension.

Ace nodded. Sniffed, as his crying made his nose run.

“Wait, why are you crying then?” Thatch demanded.

“Because I thought he was dead.”

Another dead silence dropped around them.

“Dead, yoi?”

“Yeah. Someone I knew saw his boat blow up. We never found the body, but given where Sabo was standing and where the missile hit, no one thought he could have survived.” Ace ran his fingers over the smooth scar tissue on Sabo’s face, and clutched him a little tighter. “We all thought he was dead. And he never came back, so I- I never knew he lived…”

“Oh.” Thatch’s brow furrows. “But then why did he suddenly show up out of the blue?”

Ace shook his head. “I have no idea. But-“ he bit his lip “-it’s nothing like Sabo to suddenly collapse. It’s not _normal._ It may have something to do with that, right?”

The other Whitebeards tentatively agreed that that was possible.

The knot in Ace’s gut loosened up a little. Yeah. Sabo probably didn’t purposefully stay away for nearly a decade. Ace had to believe that, or else he would go mad.

**~X~**

Sabo woke up in darkness. Through a single porthole a meager beam of moonlight trickled through, offering just enough light to know that this was not his own cabin. The wooden beams above him were unfamiliar, the light had the wrong angle, and his cabin wouldn’t be filled with the soft sounds of someone sleeping.

With a sudden flash of clarity, Sabo realized there was a warm, heavy weight draped against him, and he could feel the rise and fall of an unknown chest against his side.

Without thinking, Sabo jolted upright. The sudden change of position left him dizzy.

Beside him there was a groan. “Sabo?” a sleepy voice called.

Sabo’s head spun. He did not know that voice, except he _did._ It was deeper and more gravely, but he _knew_ that voice.

Even though he couldn’t recall ever hearing it…

“You’re awake!”

Sabo wanted to stiffen when strong arms were suddenly wrapped around him, but an initial jump aside, his muscles rebelled against his will and melted into the hold of the stranger. The scent that filled his nose made him feel incredibly safe, even though, on second assessment, the arms holding him were naked, as was the chest he was clutched against, and all he himself was wearing was a thin shirt that was too big around the shoulders. The smell of alpha was heavy around him.

A face was buried in the side of his neck, and against all rationality, Sabo felt himself welcoming the touch of lips against his mating mark.

That, more than anything, told him exactly who he was in bed with.

Sabo tried to speak, and cleared his throat to get rid of the unexpected lump he found there. “A-alpha?”

A shudder went through the person holding him. “Gods, Sabo,” the too familiar voice said, sounding wet and on the verge of tears. “You worried me, you asshole.”

Sabo blinked. “I… am sorry?”

“You should be! You’ve been out for three days! Way to announce you weren’t dead after all, you ass!”

Sabo blinked again, and slowly shook his head. “Sorry, what?”

The person holding him pulled back, and the few features he could discern in the darkness made him feel breathless. The eyes that stared at him through angry tears were shockingly familiar, as were the tiny flecks on that sharp nose – freckles, he realized, those were freckles – and the broad mouth he couldn’t stop staring at was pulled down.

A name rose unbidden from the depths of his memory. Depth he didn’t previously had, or rather, had thought lost forever.

_Oh._

“What do you mean, ‘sorry’? You think that’s gonna be enough? I want an explanation, Sabo.”

“You’re Ace,” Sabo said dazedly.

Ace blinked. “What?” A frown. “Of course I- What do you mean by that? You’re the one who recognized me first, didn’t you?”

“I recognized your scent,” Sabo blurted out without thinking. He felt himself redden and couldn’t figure out why. He clenched his mouth shut before any more dumb comments could escape.

Ace stared for a long moment. “Right.” He breathed in deeply. “Right. You better tell my why you never came back, Sabo, ‘cause I got the feeling it has to do with how weird you’re being right now.”

Sabo flexed his fingers, trying to think. Ace’s scent was really far too relaxing. He felt safe and hot and had the inexplicable urge to press himself close to the other and not let go. Ace growled impatiently, and to Sabo’s shock, he could feel his body react.

Wetness was trickling out of his omega hole.

“Oh. Oh, that’s right. I’m still in heat,” Sabo said without thinking. Then looked away in embarrassment at Ace’s incredulous look.

By god, what was he doing? Ace was right. He better explain first.

“I didn’t stay away on purpose,” he said hurriedly, before Ace decided that punching him was a viable way to get answers. “I don’t know if you know what happened when I tried to set sail-“ and oh, he himself remembered now. How delightful and horrible at once.

Ace nodded firmly, mouth twisting in a grimace. Some of the tears that had given his eyes glassy shine squeezed past the barriers of his eyelids and fell.

Sabo felt like a heel for making Ace cry. He couldn’t remember ever seeing his mate cry before and being the cause of it now was horrible.

“… Well. After I got blown up, I was found by the Revolutionary Army. But when I woke up I had no idea who I was or where I’d come from.” Despite himself, Sabo felt himself curl up small in shame. “I had amnesia, Ace. I didn’t even remember my own name. That’s why I didn’t come back.”

“Then… then how did you show up at the bar we were staying at? You looked at me straight away. Did- did you recognize me somehow?”

Sabo frowned, struggling against his sluggish memories. “I… think so? I remember coming across this… this scent, and suddenly I could feel my heat very strongly, and everything in me demanded that I find you. And then, I don’t know, but… I think part of me did recognize you,” Sabo said, voice full of wonder, as he realized in hindsight what kind of miracle occurred. Oh. Oh, this was so amazing. He hadn’t expected that something like that was capable of triggering his memories.

Ace frowned. “And now? Do you remember me now?”

Sabo looked at him, and tried desperately to dredge up the memories he knew he should have. “I think so? Bits and pieces. I- you’re my alpha. We… lived together? We mated before I left, and-“ his brow furrowed “-I was the one who wanted you to mate me.”

“Yes,” Ace said softly. “You did.”

Sabo flinched. “I’m sorry,” he said, and had never meant anything more. “I’m sorry for losing my memories. I never- I didn’t want- I always wanted to remember,” he said helplessly. “I just _couldn’t.”_

“And now?” Ace challenged.

“Better,” Sabo allowed. “I mean, I don’t have all the pieces, but already I remember more than I did in all the years since I left together.”

Ace hummed. Leaned in close. Sabo shivered as his mate’s breath ghosted over his mark.

“I missed you,” Ace whispered.

“I’m sorry,” Sabo whispered back, tilting his head to give Ace more access.

He keened softly as Ace took his invitation to press an open-mouthed kiss against his mark. Gentle though it was, the contact zinged through his body like a stray lightning bolt.

He suddenly became intensely aware of how aroused he was.

He gasped. “Ace!”

Ace growled, and a second later Sabo found himself flat on his back, his alpha above him.

Sabo was left speechless at the sensations this caused within him. Without his permission, his spine arched and his thighs fell open to welcome his mate between them.

Above him, Ace’s eyes were molten darkness, his scent strong with the rut of an alpha. With slow deliberation, Ace rolled his hardness against the wet spot in Sabo’s underwear.

Sabo’s head fell back in a soundless gasp.

“Do you want this?” Ace growled in his ear, fingers roughly undoing the buttons of his shirt. “I want to take you. I want to fuck you and claim you as mine once more. Tell me you want this, Sabo.”

Sabo shook, caught completely off guard by those words. Within him, fire melted his insides. Like a slow flood, he could feel himself start to drip.

_“Sabo.”_

“Y-yes!” Sabo gasped. “Yes, please Ace, please-“

Fabric tore. Sabo whined as his neck and chest were attacked. Callused hands smoothing over his torso, tracing his ribs and sternum. Hot breath ghosted over his neck, a prelude to the hungry mouth latching onto him. Rough thumb-pads caught upon the hardened nipples, pausing and lingering on the stiff nubs. Rubbing, slow and insistently until they burned in the best way. Then pinched and pulled at, as if he was testing if they were already producing milk.

Sabo didn’t, but in that moment he wished he did. Give Ace something real to lap and suck at. He squirmed and whined underneath Ace’s ministrations.

Callused hands glided down his sides to his hips, leaving his skin tingling in their wake. Sabo couldn’t see what happened, but there was a flash and a wash of heat across his nether regions, and suddenly he was entirely bare.

Having no idea what happened but entirely on board for it, Sabo ground himself against the thigh between his legs. He felt his slick run down from his omega entrance down the cleft of his butt to his asshole and smear the muscular flesh of Ace’s thigh. He could feel his folds open up so easily at the press of skin against his sensitive opening. He felt like he had a fever. Like his very bones were nothing but molten liquid. His cock was already fully erect and leaking.

Fuck. He had never felt his heat like this. He hadn’t known this was how it was supposed to be, his entire body begging for his alpha, for his mate. “A-Ace…”

“Yes. Yes, gods, Sabo-“

Strong fingers found Sabo’s entrance and pushed inside. Sabo keened, then shuddered. Oh. Those had slid far too easily into him.

“You’re so wet,” Ace marveled.

“Heat,” Sabo choked out as Ace fingers started so scissor and pump in and out, testing how receptive his body was. The answer was _very_. They dragged deliciously against his insides. “I’m in heat-“

“ _Fuck.”_ Lips took possession of Sabo’s own. Sabo welcomed them gladly. Their kiss was hot and messy, and ended with Ace dragging a wet trail over his cheek and down his neck. When he bit down on Sabo’s mark, Sabo couldn’t contain a small scream.

Sabo could feel Ace’s moan vibrate though his own chest. Then Ace writhed above him, wriggling out of his own underwear as quick as possible.

Sabo clutched Ace’s back as Ace pressed their naked bodies together. It felt so _good._

Ace’s hard shaft brushed against the inside of his thighs, leaving a sticky streak of wetness. “Can I?” he breathed in Sabo’s ear.

Lump in his throat and too many memories rushing to the forefront of his brain to speak, Sabo could only nod. Nod and gasp as Ace positioned the head of his cock against Sabo’s leaking entrance.

When Ace pushed inside Sabo felt like he was torn apart. Not torn apart in the painful way, but torn between his new-old memories and the shaking disbelief that this was really happening. That he had found his alpha, his mate, and his mate was nothing like Koala and Hack had thought. That he himself was here, _remembering_ , and shaking from the sheer ecstasy of knowing it would be alright. He would be alright, and as long as he had Ace he would never feel lost again.

Tears squeezed out of the corners of his eyes and dripped into his hair. His entrance felt wide and split open and far too full, like his head was too full with all that he had forgotten.

It was the most perfect, sweetest agony.

He came within seconds, painting both their stomachs with his semen. Ace kissed him and fucked him harder.

Sabo full out sobbed then, even as he clutched Ace tight and moved in tandem with Ace’s barely-controlled thrusts. “Yes. Yes, Ace, _please, please_ , gods, fuck me-“

“Sabo, Sabo, Sabo,” Ace gasped, just as desperate. “Yes, mine, forever.” A growl and an exceptionally hard thrust. “Never let you go again. Gonna keep you and never let you go-”

Sabo whined, high and pitiful, already fully hard again. “Please, yes, yours, _yours,_ fill me good-“

Ace shoved hard against him, his knot sliding past his entrance with a particularly intense _pop_ that made Sabo’s spine arch and his toes curl. _“Ah!”_

“Gonna knot you,” Ace groaned. “You won’t ever leave me again.”

“Yes,” Sabo groaned. “Yes, Ace, _please.”_

Sabo screamed Ace’s name when he felt Ace reach his peak. The knot inside him swiftly swelled to twice its previous size, and his own body responded by clenching down hard on it. Teeth buried themselves in his mark, and Sabo was coming for the second time in mere minutes before he even realized he was close.

When Sabo finally managed to blink the black spots from his eyes, Ace was wrapped tight around him and heat bloomed low in his belly. Ace’s seed, spilling into him. Spilling into his _womb,_ and in that moment he didn’t give a damn that it wasn’t smart. That as a revolutionary he couldn’t really afford the luxury of a child. For now, all he wanted was relish the feeling of being bred by his mate. Receiving what he had never thought he would before he regained his memories. They were still linked, so he shouldn’t have been out for long. Ace’s face was pressed tight against his neck, and Sabo’s own face was leaning against the side of Ace’s throat.

Ace was trembling above him.

Sabo ran a soothing hand down his mate’s back. His other tangled in raven strands and clenched tight. With a sigh, he kissed the closest thing of Ace that he could reach, which was his own mark on Ace’s shoulder. It was strange seeing it. It even had the gap of the tooth he had been missing at the time. Ace shivered at the contact.

“I’m not letting you go again either,” he said more firmly than he felt. He was done not knowing his past. “No matter what else happens, even if we’re on opposite sides of the world, I am yours forever.” A tear escaped. “I never want to forget again.”

Ace’s grip tightened. “If you did,” he said thickly, “if you did, I would come find you. I will hunt you down till the ends of the world if it means I get to have you back.”

Sabo squeezed him tight. “Always. No matter what, I will always want to be with you.”

In the soft afterglow of their lust, they held each other, and vowed that no matter what else happened, nothing would ever take this from them ever again. Never, never again.

“Yours,” Sabo whispered.

“Love you,” was the soft reply.

Their lips tasted sweet with promise.


End file.
